TOOWOOMBA has lost 1000 education sector workers over the past 19 years, when it should be gaining workers.

The shocking statistics come from Australia's leading demographer Bernard Salt.

"When you look at Australian figures as a whole in the sectors where there is job growth, healthcare is always number one, education is number two," Mr Salt said.

"Your education is going backwards, when at an Australian level it's going forwards.

"There is something awry with that."

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and analysed by Mr Salt, revealed between 2000 and 2019 Toowoomba lost about 1000 education sector jobs.

Figures within the Toowoomba community have laid the blame for that figure to cuts across the board, at the region's private and public schools, TAFE and other facilities.

"There is an issue here as education should be expanding in every part of Australia," Mr Salt said.

"The university should be expanding. Maybe more technical education should be expanding.

"If the jobs of the future are with knowledge workers, then Toowoomba needs to address this issue. The job growth is not happening where it needs to happen in education services."

University of Southern Queensland Vice Chancellor Geraldine Mackenzie said there had been a steady growth in the number of full-time equivalent jobs across all campuses.

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"What we do need to do in Toowoomba is to grow the number of not only school students but people generally who are accessing higher education," she said.

"That's about raising aspirations. Showing people university is available and making people believe they can do it."

Professor Mackenzie said USQ was working to not only encourage Toowoomba students to go into higher education, but to encourage those who want to study to stay in the town, rather than move to Brisbane to study.

"Toowoomba has a lower percentage of students going onto higher education, so raising aspirations in that way would be benefit Toowoomba as a whole," she said.

"We need to keep more people in Toowoomba, as we know from research more than 75 per cent of people who study and train regionally stay.

"If you train elsewhere you're more likely to stay in that place.

"That's the reason why law was commenced here in Toowoomba 12 years ago, to keep people in Toowoomba and to have a thriving legal community here in Toowoomba, so law firms weren't constantly trying to attract people from out of the region to work.

"That's the same with business, teachers, nurses.

"It's important to educate people in the community, as they're much more likely to stay here."

Professor Mackenzie said the university was constantly trying to innovate to attract students.

Part of that is the USQ UpSkill program, which provides shorter courses in number of subject areas.

"We're seeing disruption in this industry, a bit like Uber and Airbnb were in their industries," she said.

"People want a lot more flexibility, especially in the postgraduate space.

"People want to dip in and out of and this helps them progress now on where they are in their careers."

What do our students want?

TOOWOOMBA'S university students have their own ideas on how to attract more young people to the city to study.

Third year education student Emma Zillmann moved from Biloela to Toowoomba to study.

"I wanted to go somewhere that had a regional feel, but had access to the services and education that I needed," she said.

"Toowoomba was the obvious choice as it's such a nice place to live."

Ms Zillmann said she enjoyed studying at USQ, but would like to see more opportunities within the local professional community for networking.

"It would be great to see opportunities for young people to get more contact with industry, especially while studying," she said.

"There definitely could be more opportunities for social events, for young people to meet each other.

"Toowoomba also has some of the best artists in Australia, whether that's visual or theatre. So it's be great to see more opportunities for artists to share their work."

Sport and exercise science student David Werth has spent most of his life here and decided to study here because of the convenience of still living at home.

"In terms of my course, there's not much difference studying here compared to studying at other universities," he said.

"They all have similar resources. That's why I decided to stay here, plus other convenient reasons."

Mr Werth said a number of friends left Toowoomba as they weren't able to pursue their sporting careers locally, due to lack of services.

Business/commerce and law student Kaitlyn Cairns said the main reason people wanted to leave Toowoomba was they wanted to live in a bigger city.

"The main thing that needs to happen, and it won't happen overnight, is for Toowoomba not to feel like a small town," she said.

"It doesn't really feel like that any more, but it needs to feel more like a city. It needs to showcase itself more, people need to know what it has to offer."

New group forms

A NEW group that launched this month could be one of the ways to grow Toowoomba's education sector.

The Study Toowoomba proposal received funding in 2017 for its main purpose of shaping and building the international student experience in Toowoomba.

Mayor Paul Antonio, who is also the interim chair of the group, said the group could possibly be used to explore how the education sector could grow and evolve for everyone.

"It's about the education sector coming to work together to make sure they get the best value they possibly can get out of our education capabilities and grow them into the future. That's what we want to do," he said.

"We've got Study Toowoomba as we believe Toowoomba is an ideal place to study.

"The university is attractive to students, as are the private schools. We'll certainly be growing education in Toowoomba."

Prof Mackenzie said the group helped create a united approach to the challenges education faced in Toowoomba.

"It is really critical that all the sectors (in education) work together," she said.

"It's about making sure that what we're doing is appropriate and sustainable, not just doing it for the sake of it."

Where do you think Toowoomba should be headed in the next 30 years? Have your say at letters@ thechronicle.com.au. Letters must include a full name, suburb and contact number.